Traci Smith

Every year on his birthday, I tell Samuel how he came shooting out like a rocket. I don’t know exactly how many minutes after we left home Samuel was born, but it was well under thirty. We left for the hospital around 9 pm and his birth certificate says he was born at 9:17.  There […]

Years ago, a professor picked up a piece of chalk — Yes, chalk. You can Google it kids — and he drew a sharp, straight line across the entire width of the board. To the left of the line he scribbled: “past.” Somewhere on the middle of the line was a sloppy x, above which

Who is Jennifer Knapp? Well, as Daneen said, she’s a “proper rock star.”   According to this verbatim text from my mom, “I googled her and she has two Grammy nominations!!”  She is also, according to a member of my congregation “My new favorite musical artist.”  Jennifer Knapp is all of those things. She’s also an

Your mission — should you choose to accept it — is to write and deliver a fifteen-minute inspirational speech this week. The speech must be well-researched and written, and it should be relevant to the people you are speaking to. The goal of the speech is to inspire the listener to become a better human

I don’t want to sell my life for money.  This was the line in the poem that stood out to me the most. I got the poem by text from a friend who was meditating on it too. A form of Lectio Divina, I suppose. Marina came running out of the house with a toy

492 Words About Being Not Famous  A couple of years ago my husband came marching in the house and sat me down. “I need to talk to you!” he said.  Geez! I thought. Seems serious! “Are you famous?” He asked.   I laughed.  “I’m serious!” he said. “Tell the truth!”  “No!” I said “Defnitely not! At

I don’t know which solo pastors or head of staff pastors need to hear this but… if your administrative assistant is not doing any assisting or administrating you need to get a new one.  The person/people who is/are assigned to do all of the things that need doing in service of making the church run

Adult friendship is such a gift, and so hard to come by, maybe more so when you’re in the stage of life I’m in. Young kids, busy job. Over the past year or so I’ve tried to dust off some dormant friendships and return to people I had left behind while I was too caught

340 Words on Driving With My Daughter  The other day my daughter Marina and I were on a car ride by ourselves. Usually at least one of her siblings is with us, so it was a rare moment to imagine together. We were on an adventure through the forest. We came across a dragon. When